1 July 2009

Vintage Cycle Chic For Your Wall

For the better part of a century we knew how to market cycling and bicycles. We focused on marketing freedom of movement, enjoyment, practical transport and effortlessness.

It all went wrong for the past three or four decades in many countries, where cycling strangely was relegated to merely a sport, a recreational activity or a child's toy.

The graphic design of vintage bicycle posters is brilliant and the message it is selling can't be beat. We have a lot to re-learn about marketing bicycle culture and these old posters are inspirational.

Now you can look at them every day on a wall near you. This poster features 56 of our favourite bicycle posters.

Gender Gap?The New York Times has a piece today about how the Gender Gap persists in America. Women are a minority. Mikael was interviewed for it but only a single sentence made it past the scissors. :-)

Summer time in Flagstaff and of course now at the beginning of July it is finally warm enough to wear my summer skirts. I experimented twice this week and decided I am not opposed to showing a moderate amount of thigh. I wore extra high heels for the first time, as well. Very successful, although I did get some perplexed comments at work and one compliment from a guy on a motorcycle on the way home.

I recently wrote about cycling in skirts and Trisha about the gender gap, too. I'm happy to see discussion in the media of issues surrounding women and cycling. Hopefully the discourse will get deeper and more substantive in the future.

As you know, my view is that there are some tricks to cycling in a skirt, so as not to get it caught in different parts of the bike. I think those are legitimate concerns, but they are quite easy to address with a few pointers. On the other hand, the modesty issue that the Guardian and others make so much fuss about, eludes me. Can this possibly be a real issue that prevents women from cycling?...

Walking in a skirt also poses modesty concerns -- what, with the wind liable to blow any moment to shamefully reveal our underpants. We must have our hands at the ready to hold the skirt down if this should occur. Sitting down on the subway or a bench is also fraught with risk of exposure: We have to remember to keep our legs closed or crossed the entire time.

If anything, with a bicycle it is somewhat easier: Simply buy a huge basket and install it in front to block the view.

As for these gender gap etc discussions, frankly I find them a bit tiresome. Let's just focus on lovely bicycles forgoodnessakes and leave the identity politics out of it.

The Guardian article was just silly. If the writer is uncomfortable mounting her bicycle, of course she should get a traditional urban bicycle for riding to work or round town. Probably available second-hand, and less likely to be stolen than a brand new model.

I don't get the modesty thing; if you inadvertently flash your panties, unless you wear thongs you aren't showing any more skin than swimmers or many other athletes do. Women who practise modesty for a series of reasons (religious, cultural or simply not wanting to show so much of our flesh as we age) can simply wear somewhat longer skirts, wear leggings or a sahrouel underneath etc. In Amsterdam, I've seen several women in Muslim garb (long dresses, or a tunic and sahrouel) cycling along quite happily, and very close to my house there are some Buddhist monks who cycle in their robes!

Lovely Bicycle, the NYT article wasn't about "identity politics"; it was about making cycling appealing to women, as it is in many parts of the world. I think a far higher percentage of urban cyclists here in Montréal (due north of NYC) are women than is the case in New York, probably because one sees far more cyclists, men and women alike, cycling in normal and often in stylish attire.

You do seem rather averse to the achievements of feminism. Our rights and freedoms are based on the struggles of generations of people - both women and humanist men - and advocating equality doesn't mean ball-busting or "bra-burning" radical feminism, which has always been rather a marginal aspect of the movement and rather a red herring.

Lots of us who like men (whether attracted to them sexually or not) and like to look attractive are also deeply aware of the history of sexual inequality, and while we have made enormous strides in many parts of the world, there is still much to be done.

The bicycle has played a very important role in the emancipation of women. I belong to a group, Cyclo Nord-Sud, that collects disused bicycles to distribute them to countries in the global South, where access to a bicycle can make a huge difference in women's lives, or anybody's, for that matter.

Lagatta -- I was not so speaking so much of the NYT article, but of the general whirlwind of gender-related discussions that have been taking place in the last month, sparked by the Treehugger "girls" article and others.

As for your comment about aversion -- I am averse to any kind of "ism". I believe that making an "ism" out of complex notions can crush the very soul and squeeze out the very complexity of those notions. That is as far as I want to get into it here : )